October 15, 2013

The green monster is gone!  We cracked Clayton open like a peanut and said goodbye to the cast!  Poor thing, he was traumatized by us holding him down while the guy sawed the cast off, but then when Clayton realized we were taking the cast off he seemed like he didn't know whether to be mad or shocked.  (I don't usually get action shots during the times I am holding Clayton down, but it seems my mother was there to snap one.)

We made the three day trip and now it's done and over and he has another four months of healing ahead.  The doctor says it takes a good six months post op for everything to heal.  With the cast off, Clayton is still heavy, but he feels so much more petite at the same time.  It's weird...it has been more than four months since I have been able to hug my baby without a halo or a cast in the way.  The only complications we are having are the "pressure sore" from the cast, and Clayton trying to scratch at his healing scar.  Here are some pics, try not to be scared by his back.  It is that red because we had just taken off his cast and bandages so his skin was super irritated.  It looks much better now.  You can see the "pressure sore" from the cast though- notice its to the side of the actual incision.  You can also see the scar from the bone graft near his hip.  Clayton is not competely vertical in the photo, so it makes him look more crooked than he is.  

(I know pictures like this and others I've posted are hard to see, but I don't believe in looking the other way just because something is tough.  There are a lot of kids that go through this horror and they depend on us to help them.  Pretending these crappy situations don't exists doesn't help them.  So I post these things in hopes that people will realize what these kids go through and how badly they need their help.)

Poor thing.  They gave us some good cream to put on it so it will hopefully get better.  I wish I could say that was the end of the back stuff, but the doctor feels confident, we will need to do more in a few years.  Hopefully not until he is 10 or so.  He's ecstatic to be free now!  Figures though, we got home tonight and George is sick.  We didn't even really see him because he felt so horrible he passed out in the guest room at like 7:30 after picking us up from my mom's.  The hour or so we were home he was trying not to touch Clayton and get him sick which stinks since this is the first time in four plus months we can hug Clayton good.  Hopefully he'll get better soon, and hopefully Clayton and I don't get sick.

Here's Dr. Sucato, one of the Fellows, a nurse and a childlife specialist...all with some goodies a local artist sent with my mom..  They're "fear not" angels.